


trope meme ficlet #3

by la_dissonance



Series: commentfics and drabbles [3]
Category: Bandom, Empires
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-27
Updated: 2012-09-27
Packaged: 2017-11-15 03:17:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/522554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_dissonance/pseuds/la_dissonance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The time Sean was forced to share a bed with Tom and Max</p>
            </blockquote>





	trope meme ficlet #3

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt from lalejandra :)

Ordinarily, Sean wouldn't care if someone had fucked up the hotel reservation and they were stuck with single rooms instead of doubles. Cuddling is one of the most underrated pleasures of modern life and any other night, being forced to double up (or triple up) with his bandmates would be an opportunity. Tonight, though, the one night when cuddling is a loaded fucking gesture, _tonight_ is when they'd be squeezed into two single queen rooms. 

Sean can't get comfortable stuck in this too-small bed between Tom and Max. All three of them are lying perfectly straight to avoid getting in each other's space, which confirms Sean's intuition that tonight is a no-cuddling night. If only Tom hadn't kissed him outside the last motel. If only Sean hadn't kissed _back_. He can't so much as shift without knocking ankles with Tom or getting Max's hair in his mouth, and even when he stays still, there's a constant awareness of their presence he can't get rid of. He's pretty sure both of them are still awake.

Also, the room is stifling. 

"Can you go see if the air conditioner goes up any higher?" Sean nudges Tom's foot so he knows Sean's talking to him.

Tom wordlessly rolls out of bed and pads over toward the standard-issue hotel air conditioner under the window. Usually these things are capable of producing arctic blasts; maybe theirs is defective.

When Tom returns to bed, he settles with one leg pressed against Sean's own, thigh to toes. Sean doesn't think it's an accident. He wants to roll onto Tom and run his hands up under that t-shirt he's wearing even though it's a ridiculous 80 degrees in their room, wants to get a thigh between his legs and see if this proximity is driving Tom as crazy as it is Sean. But it's been too long since they were like that together; he doesn't know if he's allowed anymore, doesn't want to be too much all at once and drive Tom away. 

And Max is right there. Sean half wants to ask him to fix this thing between him and Tom like he fixes all things, but that wouldn't be fair on about four different levels, so he keeps his mouth shut.

Tom shifts with the apparent sole aim of rubbing his leg against Sean's in the most sensual way possible, and Sean seriously considers getting up and hiding in the bathroom until they're both asleep.

On Sean's other side, Max sighs and turns over. "Look, I wasn't going to — but I can't... I saw you two this morning, in the alley."

Sean holds his breath. Max's words bring back the hot grit of the bricks against his back, the hot wet of Tom's mouth on his, the way his head spun with how familiar it was, how new. The way he couldn't get his hands on Tom fast enough, even though he was half terrified it would make him step away.

"It was — I should have left, but I couldn't." He laughs a little. "So if you were pretending for my sake, well, now you know. I can leave if you want, I'm sure Mike and Julio have room."

"You don't have to go," Sean says. He doesn't _want_ Max to go, the room would feel empty without him there. And maybe if he knows, he can help. Maybe Sean doesn't have to figure this out all alone after all. 

"I'm not judging, I'm really happy for you," Max says, though he sounds sort of sad. "I just don't want to be a third wheel."

Sean's not even sure he and Tom are two wheels. "You're not a third wheel, don't say that."

Between their bodies, Sean feels Tom's fingers tangle in Sean's and squeeze, and doesn't know what it means until he leans over Sean and kisses Max very softly.

"Oh," Max says, very quiet.

"I think we might do better with three wheels." Tom's lying mostly on top of Sean, propped up with an elbow by his ear, and Sean can feel the words rumble in his chest.

Sean finds Max's face with his free hand, caresses his cheek and tilts his head so he can see the gleam of his eyes. Max leans in and kisses Sean like it's a question, like it's a thing he could possibly say no to. 

"Please," Sean says, clutching at both of them, drawing them closer. The AC has finally kicked in and he feels blissfully warm as they comply, tucking themselves in around him. Sean kisses Tom's face, Max's shoulder, anything he can reach. 

"I have a confession, too," Tom says after a while, just when Sean's starting to think about coaxing him up so they can get that shirt off him.

"Mm?"

"I saw you following us, Max." He says the next part into Sean's ear, barely loud enough to carry. "I wouldn't have dared to kiss you if I hadn't known Max was there. Does that make me a terrible person?"

"Makes you a smarter person than me," Sean says. "I had no idea you still wanted — but c'mon, let's get this shirt off."

Max giggles, then buries the sound in the crook of Sean's neck with a hot puff of air and slight scrape of teeth. Sean kind of wants him to do that always.

"He's right, save the retrospective for the morning. We have a bed now."


End file.
